TIM ETHRIDGE: Council shouldn't shortchange city

If you go to enough commencement ceremonies, and there are plenty at this time of year (as our four pages of pictures inserted into your Courier & Press today attest), you'll hear time and again that graduates should "reach for the stars."

Lucky for them, some members of the Evansville City Council weren't the speakers.

Based on the approach of John Friend, Connie Robinson and Dan Adams as it pertains to the proposed downtown convention center, the advice would be to settle for second-best, to lower your sights, to understand that we here in Evansville don't deserve anything that's too nice — particularly if it comes with a price tag.

That's not leadership.

The plan presented to the council included a 253-room, 12-story hotel with an adjoining apartment tower and a nearby parking garage. Total cost was pegged at $73 million, with around half of that coming from the city.

Friend and his fellow naysayers believe it's too big and too much for Evansville, even though the project will create jobs and, according to the experts, more local tourism which, in turn, will create more jobs. They want to make it smaller and cheaper. If they get their way, the project's impact will be diminished (and the weird thing is that many of their supporters have declared that the adjacent Ford Center, which passed through council under their watch, was built too small).

So we can go cheap, shortchange the project that already is three years behind in the making. Why would Evansville residents deserve a nice place to eat or stay if you want to make a night of it downtown, a place that has plans for a rooftop bar and viewing area? Why should we take a chance of building it so they come, rather than building just enough to get by?

Why should we reach for the stars?

One of the council's responsibilities is to keep an eye on expenditures. It has every right to do what it can to stop the "Smart City 2.0" project, which requires a $53 million investment to update water meters to make them more accurate and reduce the needed manpower. Seven jobs at, say, $50,000 per year, means the investment wouldn't be recouped for a generation.

But the hotel definitely is needed. It should be something special, to be enjoyed by both visitors and residents alike.

So for those who have made the recent walks through commencement lines, continue to believe in yourselves and your city — and vote those beliefs. You don't lead by walking backward, no matter the show at the Civic Center on most Monday nights.

Governor's stance also is a puzzle

Sometimes it's hard to figure out Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, too.

On one hand, he kills a proposed fertilizer plant for Posey County that would create 2,500 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs, and likely some supporting industry.

On the other, he pledges to finish the I-69 corridor all the way from Indy through Evansville — a corridor which would certainly serve suppliers for the fertilizer plant.

Pence noted fears that the product could be used in explosives — though those concerns had been addressed, according to a U.S. military leader, by the Pakistani company that is seeking tax incentives.

Every election you hear that jobs, and the economy, are the No. 1 concern for Americans, including those in Indiana. Our governor and our city council don't always listen.